What are the rules regarding an unrelated party building an FM translator to rebroadcast an AM primary station outside of it's coverage area? The rules I can find all refer to rebroadcasting an FM primary, not an AM. Do they apply to either service?

Tricky question. First, a commercial translator operating outside the primary commercial station's contour must be received off air. A possible work around would be to translate a fill in translator. Then the restriction would be the financial and technical separation between the station and the translator. This is something a lawyer with good FCC connections should investigate.

They cannot be used except for fill-in, and that means that the 60 dBu of the translator must be both inside the 2 mV/m daytime contour of the AM station and a 25 mile radius circle from the AM site. If the translator is not owned by the AM licensee it must have a retransmission agreement with the licensee. You cannot use an existing compliant fill-in translator for the primary to extend coverage beyond the limits defined above.

I'm not a lawyer but I don't see anything in the rules that says you can't have a fill-in translator relay an AM, and then have another translator relay the fill-in. The AM station isn't the primary for the second translator -- the first translator is.

It does say a translator must be *intended* for direct reception by the public - not for relaying signals to something else - I'd think as long as you could show there were people within the service area of the fill-in translator you'd be OK.

TPT wrote:But that is a different question than the example given of a third party translator rebroadcasting an AM station outside of the 2 mv/m contour.
Not sure that would fly.

Got a reply back from the stations legal counsel, they state it is allowed with the primary's permission. The remaining unresolved question is whether they are restricted to off-air reception to feed the translator.

If an FM translator outside of the primary coverage area has to receive it's signal from an over the air source how are all the translators that are out in the middle of nowhere getting away with rebroadcasting stations thousands of miles away?

And I think we would be talking about what's informally called a satelator. (i.e.: translator fed program via satellite downlink) These are permitted in the non-comm reserved band, obviously only for non-comms.